Throughout her career Douglas has pursued work that has been praised as ‘quiet, but strangely energetic and animated’ and as evidence of ‘her commitment to creative experimentation and evolution with the always challenging medium of glass.’ Robert Cook, Curator 20th Century Art, AGWA
Douglas’ work explores the potential, versatility and flexibility of glass as a material for drawing. In her words ‘objects and drawings are often thought of as two separate entities. My pieces explore and interweave the creative possibilities of this liminal space, where the form is not just a support for drawing; but a three-dimensional drawing itself. Using the unique qualities of the material, and the rich potential of mark making on and with glass, I am using line as a way to inform, define and enable three-dimensional space’.
Mel Douglas has worked as an independent studio artist since graduating from the Canberra School of Art, Australian National University in 2000. In 2020 Douglas was awarded a PhD for her practice-lead research investigating how studio glass can be understood through the aesthetics of drawing. In addition to winning the 2020 and 2014 Tom Malone Prize, a prestigious award through which a work is acquired each year into the collection of the National Gallery of Western Australia, Douglas has received several major awards including the Ranamok Glass Prize in 2002, the International Young Glass Award in 2007 from Ebeltolft.
In 2019 her work was the inaugural acquisition for the NGA’s Robert and Eugenie Bell Decorative Arts and Design Fund. Douglas’ work is held in the private collections and public institutions internationally, including the Corning Museum of Glass, New York, the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA; the Ebeltoft Museum of Glass, Denmark, and National Gallery of Australia, Australia.
CV available upon request.